“Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died ¹  and no eye would have seen me!

Is it of any special benefit ¹  to the Almighty that you should be righteous, or is it any gain to him that you make your ways blameless? ² 

Is it your opinion ¹  that God ²  should recompense it, because you reject this? ³  But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

I will instruct and teach you ¹  about how you should live. ²  I will advise you as I look you in the eye. ³ 

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants be avenged among the nations! ¹ 

May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ¹  for I trust in you. Show me the way I should go, ²  because I long for you. ³ 

when he gave the sea his decree that the waters should not pass over his command, ¹  when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

Train ¹  a child ²  in the way that he should go, ³  and when he is old he will not turn from it. ⁴ 

If you should pound ¹  the fool in the mortar among the grain ²  with the pestle, his foolishness would not depart from him. ³ 

and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things ¹  are a gift from God.

It is better to go to a funeral ¹  than a feast. ²  For death ³  is the destiny ⁴  of every person, ⁵  and the living should ⁶  take this ⁷  to heart.

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

I ¹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. ²  You who pray to ³  the Lord, don’t be silent!

You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear ¹  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ² 

So I, Jeremiah, tell you, ¹  “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’ ² 

Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’ ¹ 

Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ¹  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ² 

The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ¹  comes against their whole crowd.

Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ¹  Why should you die, O house of Israel?

It is sharpened for slaughter, it is polished to flash like lightning! “‘Should we rejoice in the scepter of my son? No! The sword despises every tree! ¹